Introduction of the Issue. 2 Samuel 24 is an excellent example of the biblical tension between divine sovereignty and human responsibility and their interrelatedness. For one, the text provides little reason for the Lord’s anger against Israel (2 Sam. 24:1a), for the Lord’s incitement (2 Sam. 24:1b), and for why David’s numbering of the people is a sin (cf. 2 Sam. 24:10, 17). [(On a quick side note, a number of answers can be provided for why the Lord was angry and why David’s act of numbering the people is a sin, but I will not provide them here.)] However, what is certain is that David feels morally culpable for his action of counting Israel and Judah (24:10, 17), and surprisingly not less guilty even though God incited him to do it (24:1b). So the language of the text is clear: God punishes men for something that he incites them to do and still there is no moral blame placed on God. So what the reader finds in this text is complete sovereignty of God and absolute moral responsibility of humanity, and the existence of one side of the coin appears to not diminish the other. Now if God truly incited David to sin, how is God not the initiator of a sinful action? How can this be consistent with the teaching of James 1:13-15 that God “never tempts anyone”?
An Inadequate Solution. In an effort to relieve such tension some scholars have appealed to the parallel passage, 1 Chronicles 21. The Chronicler, writing after the exile, records that it was Satan, not Yahweh, who incites David to number the people and thus sin against God. This is cited by some as an example of how Israelite theology evolved over time during the OT period. They would contend that Samuel’s rendering reflects an older, more primitive theology with a less developed concept of God than the Chronicler’s. Given such evident theological development and diversity, some believe that it was Satan, and not God, who must be the one responsible for an apparent moral atrocity. Therefore, the purpose of the change in wording is viewed as an attempt by the Chronicler to protect his more sophisticated understanding of the holiness of God.
However, such an appeal does not help in the matter and only raises more questions and thus problems. If both of these statements (1 Samuel 24:1; 1 Chronicles 21:1) are viewed as carrying divine authority, then it means that there cannot be a conflict or contradiction between them. In other words, the view that the Chronicler’s change reflects an evolution in theology suggests fallible human opinion rather than two divinely inspired statements.
A Better Solution. The tension between these two texts is best resolved by understanding Samuel as speaking from the standpoint of God’s general providential governance of everything that comes to pass through and dominion over all powers and authorities whether in heaven or on earth (cf. Ps. 97:9; Eph. 1:20), while the Chronicler speaks more specifically of Satan as the immediate cause of David’s action. Another way of understanding it is that Samuel provides an underlying theological perspective, while the Chronicler simply describes what happened from a human perspective. Therefore, the exchange of Yahweh for Satan is no more and no less troubling than the situation one finds in the first two chapters of Job. Satan’s power to cause things to happen is dependent on God allowing it in the first place. The Bible teaches that God empowers human beings (cf. Judg. 1:14; Hab. 1:6; Acts 4:28) and even destructive beings (cf. 1 Kgs. 22:19-23; 2 Thess. 2:11) in a limited way to bring about judgment. Therefore, such principles can be applied to our present case: the Lord enabled Satan to entice David to act foolishly in order to bring judgment upon Israel.
Reconciliation with James. How is God’s incitement of David’s sin consistent with the teaching of James 1:13-15 that God “never tempts anyone”? First, keep in mind that 2 Sam 24 makes it clear that God is sovereign and David, not God, is culpable. Next, it is crucial to understand what is meant by temptation. Temptation refers to the internal conceiving and actualizing of sin. So what James seems to be stated is that God is never the internal cause for temptations in the human agent. In this manner the fault for sin lies in how sin is actualized in the agent and has thus corrupted our human nature from the good thing God created. The culpability for our sin is not in the external situation, which we erroneously call ‘temptation’ and what I believe 2 Sam 24 is referring to (i.e. God is the external reason for David’s numbering of the people), but our own sinful desires for things God has either forbidden directly and that cause us to act in our own strength rather than in dependence upon the Lord.
A Philosophical Illustration. I think philosophy can illustrate the logicalness of this biblical distinction. First it seems clear that this text does not teach or support libertarian freedom, that is, the claim that any form of determinism is incompatible with freedom and responsibility. However, the text does seem to support the notion that determinism and responsibility are compatible and it is from this point that many philosophers assert compatibilism as an answer the apparent dilemma.
Next, it is crucial to clarify what I mean by “determinism.” It is far different to say that God directly caused David to act circumventing his deliberative processes (hard determinism), than to say that God indirectly caused David to act and thus did not circumvent his deliberative processes (comaptibilism).
I believe direct [or hard] determinism is false, but I do think it provides indirect determinism or compatibilism with some helpful remarks. If God directly causes David to number the people, he would not be responsible for numbering the people and God would be guilty of causing David to sin. However, this leaves open the possibility that God could cause David to number the people in such a way that does not undermine his deliberative processes and thus responsibility/freedom. We might say that God gave David an intellect that could deliberate on what actions to take in order to reach desired ends. In this more indirect way, God can then externally cause David to number the people without overriding David’s internal faculties, which are part of David’s deliberative processes, and thus does not undermine David’s freedom. David’s action of numbering the people would issue from his own practical reason (i.e. David’s sinful nature and thus natural inclination to sin), and the result of his own deliberations as to what he should do to attain the goals he desires to attain. God would remain sovereign because he is the one who externally created David with the reasons available to David to perform such an act. In other words, God is sovereign because he externally created David, and David is free because he internalized the action in accordance with who he is and/or what he wanted to do.
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